SPORT

Aviva Birmingham grand prix

Anyone experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms from the Olympic athletics-fest can be reassured that less than two weeks from now a miniature version will be held in Birmingham. Highlights include Mo Farah, running once again with his training partner Galen Rupp, the British high-jumper Robbie Grabarz and the American sprinter Carmelita Jeter, who earned an Olympic full house by winning a gold (in the 4x100m relay), a silver (in the 100m) and a bronze (in the 200m). 26 AugustSB

Paralympics

The doors to the Olympic Park will be flung open once again before the month is out, as the Paralympics returns to the land of its birth. London seems ready to embrace the event with unrivalled enthusiasm as 2.1m tickets, more than 85% of the total, had already been sold by the end of last week, and a fresh release on Monday sold out in short order. 29 August–9 September SB

Tour of Britain

The lineups are yet to be revealed, but Team Sky, employers of Britain's road cycling superstars, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, will definitely be represented and the pair could well set out on a nationwide lap of honour, starting in Ipswich and taking in most regions except the north-east (though Jedburgh, starting point of the third stage, is only 10 miles from the English border) and London (which will have had enough sport for the time being). 9-16 September SB

Ryder Cup

Golf will join the Olympic fold in four years, but this year's outstanding event is the Ryder Cup, where the best players from America and Europe will do battle over three days of mounting tension in Medinah, Illinois. Europe are defending champions, having won four of the last five events, and will boast three of the top four players in the world, but the US captain, Davis Love III, believes that his are the players in form.28-30 September SB

ARTS

Saddle up and switch your brain off for a big, dumb ensemble film that follows a plethora of action heroes (Stallone, Arnie, Statham, Van Damme) on a revenge rampage after one of their number is killed. The standup comedian Russell Kane recently described the movie as "a guilt-free way to ironically savour a masculinity now denounced and mocked; a roaring splurge of outlawed hormone". So that should release the pent-up emotions now lacking an outlet post-Games. 16 August AN

The largest festival of contemporary art in the country, which takes over the whole city. Among many other projects, this year's biennial will include the Cunard building and old Royal Mail sorting office opened to the public for the first time and turned into galleries; a lift made by Israeli artist, Oded Hirsch, bursting out of the floor of the ONE shopping centre, and But I'm on the Guest List Too!, a work by Elmgreen and Dragset, who put up the boy on a rocking horse in London's Trafalgar Square, which will see the entrance to a VIP club blocked by a bouncer. Starts 15 September AN

World-class Shakespeare

Whether or not you figured out what the Cultural Olympiad actually was, thanks to the World Shakespeare festival – one of its many strands – we have been treated to landmark performances of the Bard's plays, given every conceivable theatrical and televisual treatment. London still has two of the biggest guns to come: King Lear at the Almeida theatre, in which Jonathan Pryce plays the tormented monarch, and Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry (playing Malvolio) in an all-male production of Twelfth Night at the Globe, which later will transfer to the West End. King Lear opens on 31 August and Twelfth Night on 22 September. AN

MUSIC

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan: back to his best? Photograph: Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images

Critics are already calling Dylan's 35th album, Tempest, his best for a decade. The Shakespeare-tinged title has prompted speculation that this may be Dylan's farewell, though he disputed this: "Shakespeare's last play was called The Tempest. It wasn't called just plain Tempest. The name of my record is just plain Tempest. It's two different titles." Released 10 September AN

Consisting of four of the greatest operas every written, Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is the operatic equivalent of the decathlon – resource-intensive, epic and 16 hours long. It makes a rare reappearance at the Royal Opera House in London at the end of next month, directed by Keith Warner, conducted by Antonio Pappano and starring Bryn Terfel and Susan Bullock. The ultimate opera experience, this is one for the bucket list. Starts 25 September AN

Africa Express

Still standing from his Olympics gig with Blur in Hyde Park on Sunday, Damon Albarn has hired a train, along with 80-odd friends, to tour the UK in the first week of September. Collectively, they're known as Africa Express, and include some of the biggest names in African music such as Amadou and Mariam, as well as upcoming homegrown acts including Charli XCX and members of Bombay Bicycle Club. Starts 2 September CLS

The xx

It's not obviously uplifting music, but Mercury prize winners the xx return with their second album on 10 September, causing great excitement among the music cognoscenti. Titled Coexist, it doesn't reinvent but refines their formula. The band also play the last (and arguably best) big festival of the season, Bestival, on the weekend of 8 September. CLS

TV

Parade's End, BBC1

Benedict Cumberbatch spends his Sherlock downtime married to a cruel but beautiful Rebecca Hall in this elegant Edwardian saga. British government statistician Christopher Tietjens (Cumberbatch) secretly yearns for an ambitious young suffragette named Valentine (Adelaide Clemens). His wife, meanwhile, sleeps with other men to kill the time while he's counting things. But the great war and social change approach like big and very useful plot devices. Tom Stoppard neatly adapts the Ford Madox Ford novels, giving things a brisk pace and muscular throb of British restraint. Starts 24 AugustJR

Homeland, C4

In a plot twist brilliantly set up at the end of season one, ex-fed Carrie (Claire Danes) now has no memory of her desperate, hyperventilating bid to stop US soldier Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) from detonating the US vice-president in a bunker. And if the trailers are to be believed, this season sees her nemesis further inveigle his way into the US establishment by running for congress. Will she remember he's a secret jihadi extremist before he blows up America? Not long to wait. October JR

A Touch of Cloth, Sky 1

TV Burp writer Daniel Maier and Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker have collaborated on this deranged detective spoof starring John Hannah and Suranne Jones. It's played with such po-faces that initial trailers confused some viewers who expressed concern that Sky hadn't realised "touching cloth" was a euphemism for needing a poo. It's rammed full of silly Police Squad-style gags such as "the bodies keep on washing up, Cloth" and all concerned give it the full Taggart in terms of dour scowling. It's great. August bank holiday weekendJR

Downton Abbey, ITV1

Next month sees the return of Julian Fellowes' cross-class bustle-burster, which would be limping into its third and final series if it weren't for the arrival of Shirley MacLaine. She plays Lady Cora's wealthy mum Martha Levinson, and wastes no time in rattling Downton's chandeliers with her modern views and big gob. MacLaine going 10 rounds with Dame Maggie Smith is reason enough for anyone to tune in. September JR

PLUS …

Clare Balding's memoir

Clare Balding: fireside read. Photograph: Dave M Benett/Getty Images

Her warmth, knowledge and calm authority made the sports presenter one of the best things about London 2012. She even managed the unheard-of feat of getting Jan Moir to write something nice in the Daily Mail. While we wait for her to become the new Gary Lineker/prime minister/queen, her first memoir, My Animals and Other Family, is out in September, and will be about the dogs and horses she shared her childhood with. The reading equivalent of snuggling by the fire with a labrador. 13 SeptemberES

The 10th free festival celebrating South Asian culture takes place in London's Gunnersbury Park on Sunday, with a carnival, photographic exhibition, a stage of fresh talent presented by DJ Bobby Friction, and the heady combination of food and a fun fair. Given the preponderance of Indian dance on show, you probably won't see David Cameron down there, but we doubt that's much of a deterrent. 19 August AN

The US presidential election

The most expensive election in US history – estimates put the total spend at nearly $6bn – nears its November polling day, with both the Republicans and Democrats promising their way is the one true path to a spectacular American comeback. While the idea of a win for Mitt Romney and his new super-rightwing running-mate Paul Ryan might send shivers through liberal hearts, the contest promises to be fascinating. ES